Leading Conservatives: Pelosi Must Step Down

The Council for National Policy released the following statement Friday regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and her allegation that the CIA misled her about interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects:

When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi accuses the intelligence community of lying, more is at stake than what she was told, who briefed her, or even the substance of the briefings she had with the CIA. Speaker Pelosi is endangering the national security of the United States.

Speaker Pelosi has chosen to politicize the CIA and to demoralize its employees in order to take one more parting shot at the Bush administration, and to try to distract the public from her potentially career-ending exercise of bad judgment. By politicizing the intelligence community, Speaker Pelosi is reviving one of Washington's most tired and ugly old ways.

SPEAKER PELOSI IS SECOND IN LINE TO SUCCEED TO THE PRESIDENCY

Were Pelosi simply another member of the House of Representatives the problem would be less serious. But as Speaker of the House, she is second in line to succeed to the presidency and thus at the peak of government power. In accusing the CIA officers who briefed her on sensitive intelligence issues of lying, Speaker Pelosi has damaged the Agency's morale and denigrated its reputation in the eyes of our allies and of the American people.

CIA Director Leon Panetta, a former member of Congress who also served on the House Intelligence Committee with Pelosi, and a Democrat, has emphasized that “It is not our policy to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values.”

SPEAKER PELOSI SHOULD STEP ASIDE & CONGRESS SHOULD INVESTIGATE

The national security of the United States is more important than politics. It is time that Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration stop trying to protect Pelosi at the expense of national security.

We ask that Speaker Pelosi voluntarily step aside from her duties, and that the Congress appoint a bi-partisan Select Intelligence Committee to investigate and determine what Speaker Pelosi knew and when she knew it.